by: bodyflight - 23rd January 2008

Full review

Wolf Ridge (formerly Wolf Laurel) is a great place to ski for me. There are two sides of the mountain and an entrance at each. The front entrance is where most everyone goes and offers the most options for first timers to the resort, so we often take the back entrance.
The trails are plenty for this area, although I have yet to ski the mountain fully open. The main run on the backside isn't too long, but offers some serious variety for a single run... there's a terrain park area half way down on the side, there is a slow trail you can take around the terrain park, and a steeper slope along side the terrain park area. They have a good jump setup, and you get to ski through a tunnel under the road, which has a neat factor in and of itself. I especially like that parking uptop means that I get to ski BEFORE I board a lift for the first time. There is a slope that connects the two sides, but snowmaking has been sparce there for now.
The food at both lodges is good, the upper lodge more of a restaurant, the lower more of a cafeteria. Both have a nice fireplace to warm up in and plenty of seating, as we have always been able to find a table, no matter how many church groups were there.
The lift lines aren't properly managed, so many a half empty quad chair will pass you by, but if you pay attention to the crowd, you can usually go fast and get back to the lift while most people are still sitting in the snow. And when the lift line is long, you can take your time getting down. If they would simply manage the chairs better, lift lines would be fine. We try to organize our chair & the one in front or behind us every time. If everyone would just manage themselves, we would all have so much more fun! Quad=4!!!
While I was there the "Wolf" skiied down the slopes, in full costume with flagged ski poles. It was entertaining, and I like the idea that they are safety aware enough to remind people about it. Its also indicitive of their inner personality, fun, youthful and friendly.
We spoke to LOTS of ski patrollers while we were there. One clobbered me in the head with her ski poles while she was cutting in the lift line (not very nice), however most seem like cool experienced folks, who were friendly and informative. My husband was a ski patroller for about 10 years, so he always buddies up with those folks at every resort. :-)
All in all.. the Wolf is my favorite local place for this year. They are working on bringing back an old favorite, and although I didn't ski wolf laurel when it was, I can see that they are working on improving this place for the rest of the coming years. I'm certain that next year I'll be buying the season pass.
I'm an intermediate, just past beginner skiier.